Information on the Nineteenth and Twentiathe Century Novel module delivered
between 1997 and 2001.
I've also included my Lecture notes on
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Introduction and Course Aims
The Novel course is mainly concerned with English novels from the nineteenth
century realist tradition, and with those twentieth century novels which have either
developed or attempted to break away from that realist tradition. The course does include,
however, two key texts from the European novelistic tradition, Anna Karenin
and The Trial, chosen because of their representative status and significance.
Although the works of eighteenth century novelists such as Fielding, Richardson and
Sterne are not studied, reference is made in the course to the ways in which novelists such
as Austen and Dickens developed their techniques. The issues raised by more recent
texts, issues of metafiction and post-Modernism, will also be broached, but without intruding
on the material covered in Modern and Contemporary Writing.
Throughout the course considerable emphasis is placed on the close textual study
of the novels themselves. However, wider social, cultural and philosophical issues are
also dealt with, as determining contexts for each novel: we will explore how certain themes,
such as the Town/Country contrast, gender representation, individuality, authenticity
identity, recur throughout each of these novels. The course will also address issues of
critical interpretation and analysis. Students will be encouraged to deploy various critical
perspectives - historicist, structuralist, feminist, psychoanalytical, etc. - where
appropriate.
Teaching
The course will be taught mainly in student seminar groups, with general
discussion and opportunities for close textual analysis. Sessions will generally be held on
Mondays, pm, in the Library seminar Room, but check the Course Timetable for full details. At various points in the course there
will be lecture presentations, either to introduce the work of a particular novelist, or to
raise more general issues. The success of the course will, however, depend largely on
your reading of each of the texts and your contribution to seminar discussions.
Content and Timetable
The course will deal with the novels chronologically, allowing 2-3 weeks for the
exploration of each text. An approximate timetable for the course will, therefore, be as
follows:
Week--------------------------- Session
- 1
- Lecture: "The Rise and Consolidation of the Novel"
Lecture Notes for this session
- 2 - 3
- Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, (Penguin)
- 4 - 5
- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, (Penguin)
- 6 - 7
- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, (Penguin)
- 8
- Lecture: "George Eliot and Nineteenth Century Science"
George Eliot, Middlemarch, (Penguin)
- 9 - 10
- George Eliot, Middlemarch
- 11
- Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, (Penguin)
CHRISTMAS VACATION
- 1 - 2
- Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- 3 - 4
- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, (Penguin)
[Weeks 5-6 will be taken up by the semester break]
- 7
- Lecture: " After the Nineteenth Century Novel"
[Lecture Notes for this session] and seminar
James Joyce,Portait of the Artist, (Granada)
- 8
- James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist (cont.)
- 9 - 10
- Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, (Granada)
[seminar workshop notes for these sessions]
- 11
- Franz Kafka, The Trial, (Penguin)
- 12 - 13
- Graham Greene, Brighton Rock, (Penguin)
EASTER VACATION
- 14 - 15
- Iris Murdoch, The Bell, (Penguin)
- 16
- Final Revision Session
Reading
The course relies on your reading of, and involvement in, the novels themselves. However, this reading may be complemented by reference to some of the following secondary texts.
ALLEN, W., The English Novel, (Penguin, 1974)
HARDY, B.,Forms of Feeling in Victorian Fiction (Athlone, 1966)
(ed) KETTLE, A., The Nineteenth Century Novel, (Heinemann, 1972)
LODGE, D., The Language of Fiction, (RKP,1964)
WILLIAMS, R., The English Novel from Dickens to Lawrence (Chatto & Windus,1970)
The Open University, Course Units for A312, 'The Nineteenth Century Novel and its Legacy', are often extremely useful starting points for exploring the novels on the course, and these are available in the library. Secondary material on individual novels will be recommended in course sessions, and relevant articles/offprints will be made available on Reserve in the Library.
Page last updated 27/01/03